More customers claim to be scammed by local builder

A man at the center of a special report ABC 17 News did on Tuesday night has now been arrested.

Ken Jinson was picked up by police on Tuesday, but has already bonded out of jail.

ABC 17 News investigated claims Jinson was ripping people off for construction work in Cole County.

Since the story aired, more people have come forward, claiming they were also scammed by Jinson.

“It’s not even a business, we just do this to stay busy,” said Jinson when ABC 17 News confronted him on Tuesday.

On Wednesday we found Kenneth Scott Jinson Building Contractor on the Better Business Bureaus website.

However, it was not accredited.

“Each company we have in our database is graded on a scale of an A plus to an F, and that is assuming we have enough information. We have 13 criteria we look at,” said Mike Harrisson, the regional director for the Better Business Bureau.

Some criteria is length of time in business and the number of complaints against them.

However, Kenneth Scott Jinson building contractor never got past those 13 criteria, and has never been accredited.

“With anything we rely on consumers to let us know if they have been affected and scammed,” said Harrison.

As of Wednesday evening there has only been one formal complaint filed against Jinson in the past three years according to the BBB.

ABC 17 News checked in with the Attorney General’s office, it says there have been two complaints filed against Jinson.

However, on Wednesday ABC 17 News learned of several others who say they are victims.

Chris Walter wrote on our website she paid Jinson $4,000 for half the job of building an enclosed deck.

She said he put up four posts and never did anything else for six months.

Ginny Devine said she lost $700 on a custom built doghouse that fell apart on the way home.

Jessica Oliver said her parents were scammed by him because they paid Jinson to redo the bathroom, ripped out the entire floor, shower and sink, then disappeared.

Harrison said you should never pay a contractor all of the money up front.